I prop my phone on the dash and throw the car in drive. None of my passengers complain as I speed through the city streets, their attention on the phone call emanating from the car speakers and the video feed on my phone.
The only reason I haven’t sent the three soldiers at her apartment building to break down the door is because Loretta sounds so level-headed.
“Is this why you weren’t concerned about them returning? Because you were already talking to them?” Loretta asks.
The tiny cameras in her earrings and necklace split the screen and offer a clear view of the man she squares off with.
I glance at the screen and barely manage not to smash it. The scarred Russian bastardo is a dead man walking. The situation hasn’t turned physical yet, but by the glint in the stronzo’s eyes, it will soon.
I swerve around a cab and mash the gas pedal.
“Oh, I was talking to them long before then,” Livia says from off screen.
The tension grows as Loretta processes her sister’s damning words.
“Since when?” Loretta asks.
The man steps closer to her. She doesn’t back up.
“Since years, shlyukha,” the man says with a heavy Russian accent.
Livia called him Viktor. In the last two minutes, Loretta has uncovered more about the men I’ve been hunting than I have in the last eight months.
“What? You’ve known each other for years? How? Why?” Loretta asks.
“I have things they want,” Viktor says.
He steps closer. My fury grows more explosive than ever before. I jerk the wheel and cut through a side street.
“What things?” Loretta demands.
“Don’t be stupid, Loretta. Ever since those Italian thugs chased papà out of New York City, our family has obsessed over coming back.” The hidden jab that Loretta was never a part of the family slides through my ribs and pierces my heart as I imagine my wife’s pained expression.
“Then they made it worse when they kicked Julieta out,” Livia continues. “We’ve been planning to overthrow the entire mafia scene for almost two decades, and you expect me to believe you’ve been clueless the whole time?”
The camera angle shifts, and even though the change is subtle, I imagine mia gattina sinking into a stance for better balance.
Fuck, she’s preparing to fight.
“Yes, because you left me in the dark,” she snaps at her sister. “So spell it out for me. What does this asshole have to do with anything?”
The cameras shake as Loretta gestures toward her captor. My gut clenches as he smirks, the scar running from his brow to his lip a horrible sight, but the hunger in his eyes is so much worse.
I park the car behind her apartment building and snatch my phone from the dash as I exit the vehicle.
“Viktor and Feliks have the power to destroy all the founding mafia families,” Livia brags.
Vinny, one of the three men assigned to protect Loretta tonight, opens the back door from inside the building before I reach it. I dart through and take the stairs four at a time.
“Why would they help you?” Loretta asks.
Livia laughs. Sound blasts from my phone as Viktor grabs Loretta’s hair. She hisses but doesn’t retaliate.
Hold on, mia gattina. I’m almost there.
I force my legs up the stairs faster.
“They have a thing I want,” Viktor says.
He means her. My wife. My soulmate. Mia gattina.
He can’t have her.
I punch through the fire safe door into the hallway and pull my pistol from my chest holster and a keycard I bought off the front desk clerk a few days ago.
“No,” Loretta growls.
“Da. I told you I take you,” Viktor says.
I push past the two guards waiting just out of sight of the door camera and wand the keycard.
The door beeps.
Livia’s shout cuts off abruptly as I slam the door open with my entire body, flinging her into the wall. Before she crumples to the ground, I lunge forward, intending to grab mia gattina, but she headbutts Viktor’s Adam’s apple and drops to the ground.
Remembering how painful our meeting was—her first punch was to my throat—I applaud her ingenuity and aim my muzzle at his face.
He snarls and lifts Loretta by her braid. She digs her nails into his opposite wrist, preventing him from reaching for the weapon on his belt.
I shoot him in the shoulder twice before yanking Loretta’s braid out of his fist and wrapping my arm around her stomach. She white-knuckles his wrist and snarls.
I lift her off her feet and pull her away from him before I bury two more bullets into his opposite shoulder.
He reaches for his holster.
I empty my magazine into his stomach.
The floor shakes as he thuds to the ground.
Blood and entrails splatter all over the walls, hardwood floor, and rug. When he coughs, chunks or dark crimson spew from his mouth.
Loretta jerks away from me. I let her go, stalk to the gurgling man, and strip him of his weapons.
A feminine groan pulls my attention to the foyer. Livia clutches her head and props herself up on the wall. Loretta looms over her with her fists clenched at her sides.
“I gave you my kidney and part of my liver. You’re alive because of me,” Loretta says.
Livia scoffs and looks up at her identical twin.
“I’m in hell because of you. All you’ve ever done was get in my way,” she sneers.
“How could I have been in your way when I gave you so much space? You knew how much I needed physical contact and you used it like a weapon.” Loretta steps closer when Livia shifts, preventing her from standing. “I went years without a hug. Months with no human touch. Not even a handshake. Do you know how much that hurts?”
The pain in her voice etches itself into my soul, and worry worms its way into my heart.
Were her intense reactions with me only because she was touch deprived?
Did she pull me into her bed and drape my body over hers only because she was desperate? Would she have let anyone with a dick take her virginity on her kitchen counter?
I know the answer before it even finishes forming in my mind.
No. She wouldn’t.
Mia gattina is too strong-willed and fierce to accept less than what she deserves. Her sister wouldn’t have had a chance at controlling her without the trauma of her childhood holding her down.
Livia gives Loretta a disgusted once-over.
“Of course I don’t know how that feels. I’m not stupid enough to need someone else’s approval to live my life,” she says.
“But you’d follow Julieta? You’d choose her over me?”
“Yes. Again and again.”
“You always have, haven’t you?” Loretta asks in a tone so cold it rivals my interrogation voice.
Livia shows her first signs of wisdom when fear flashes in her eyes.
The difference between their green orbs is obvious to me now. Livia’s irises with their brown flecks seem dirty compared to Loretta’s crystal clear rings, and I prefer Loretta’s pale green over Livia’s darker emerald.
When desperation creeps into Livia’s scared expression, I harden my heart for what comes next.
Loretta may never forgive me, but Livia has information I need in order to keep her and the Russo family safe.
“We’re sisters,” Livia pleads. “Sisters don’t always get along. We can—”
“No, Livia,” Loretta says. “You broke that bond long ago. I was just too naïve to see it.” She leans over her twin and grabs her by the throat. “There is no connection between us anymore. I owe you nothing.”
I watch in awe as mia gattina lifts the woman who emotionally abused her for decades by the throat and pins her against the wall. Livia clutches at Loretta’s wrist but seems utterly at a loss.
“We’re not sisters anymore. We’re not family.”
Livia gasps as mia gattina tightens her fist.
“I’m no longer a Giordano. I’m a Mancini,” my wife declares.
Despite the acrid stench of death and fear permeating the room and my men watching from the hall, my cock hardens as the woman of my dreams claims me in the simplest yet most profound moment of my life.
“The Mancini family protects the Russo family. Do you know what that means, Livia Giordano?”
Lust pounds through me, testing my control as Loretta voices the vow I’ve lived for years. Her proclamation fills my soul with peace and excitement.
“It means I’m no longer your curse. Instead, I’m your worst nightmare,” she snarls.
Warped mirth and pride fill my chest as Loretta pulls her fist back and knocks her twin out cold with a single punch.
She’s perfect. Vicious. Strong.
Mine.
I need her. Now.
She drops her sister and sags against the wall. I pull her against me.
“Wait, I’m not done yet. Give me a pair of handcuffs,” she says.
Despite her words, she circles her arms around me and hugs me as though she’ll shatter into a million pieces if she doesn’t burrow under my skin.
I tilt my chin at the man holding the door open. He steps over the threshold and pulls a pair of handcuffs from his belt.
Loretta growls, pushes off my chest, and snatches the metal from him.
“No one touches her but me,” she demands.
I grab her braid and stop her from dropping to her sister.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
She grits her teeth and pierces my soul with her bright green eyes.
“I’m getting the answers you need,” she says.
“You’re going to torture her yourself?” I ask.
She pulls in a long breath through her nose before responding.
“It probably makes me a bigger monster than you, but yes.”
I chuckle and murmur, “It doesn’t.”
Her expression turns skeptical.
I release her and check for signs of Livia rousing, but she’s still out cold. Loretta closes the cuff around her left wrist and drops her hand in her lap before reaching for her right wrist.
“Plus, I might not need to use violence again,” she says.
A suspicion creeps through me, but I need to hear her say it.
“What do you mean, gattina?” I ask.
“If you can get me some medical supplies, there’s a ratio that isn’t quite a truth serum but can lower her inhibitions while keeping her cognitive enough to—what?”
Her wide eyes search my face. I realize my expression may not be the most welcoming and laugh at myself.
“I’ve hated anesthesiologists since I was a kid. My first operation, a simple tonsillectomy, left me with permanent damage in the superficial nerves of my legs.”
She cocks her head and scowls.
“Is that why my heel jabs never affected you?”
I nod.
“That’s not a weakness, stronzo. That’s a hidden superpower.”
“I know that now, but as a boy, it was devastating,” I say.
She wraps her arms around my waist and presses her front against mine.
“I’m sorry, Ermanno. I would never—”
“I know, mia gattina. The morning I f—” my men shift in the hall, reminding me of our audience, so I choose a word other than fucked, “—found you in the laundry room, you had just called in and canceled your shift, hadn’t you?”
“Yes, but—”
“Because you knew you wouldn’t be able to focus solely on the patient. Right?”
She nods.
“I don’t hate anesthesiologists anymore. I can’t. You’re one, and from what I’ve seen and heard, you’re excellent. The best in the entire state of New York.”
“You did your research, didn’t you?” she huffs with annoyance, but the relief in her eyes destroys the effect.
“Not until after you told me your job,” I answer.
Her arms tighten around me. She drops her gaze to my chest. Yearning fills her eyes, but she leans back and glances at her sister.
“Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to. I can—”
“Your hands are going nowhere near her. She looks way too much like me,” she snarls.
I quirk a brow and enjoy the mix of jealous fury and her possessiveness over me.
“Loretta, I didn’t know you when I mistook you for Julieta. I dismissed a ton of warning signs, but now that you’re mine,” I tug her hips against mine, wrap my fist around her braid, pull her head back, and peer deep into her eyes, “I’ll never make the same mistake again. You’re the only one for me, gattina,” I vow.
Tears shimmer in her clear green orbs, but she grabs my nape and tugs me down for a kiss. I pull back before we give my men too much of a show.
Livia groans and lolls her head on the floor. I tilt my chin, instructing Vinny to take her to the car, but Loretta hisses and swats my shoulder.
“Don’t you dare try to distract me. I meant what I said. No one touches her but me,” she says with a glare at both me and Vinny.
The man steps back and props the door open with his body.
“Not even to carry her to the car?” I ask.
Loretta pushes against my chest, but I refuse to let her go.
“No. I can do it.”
By the stubborn set of her chin, she means it.
“Why?” I ask.
She huffs and rolls her eyes.
“You might be able to tell us apart, but do you think they can?”
The exasperation in her voice matches her gesture as she sweeps her arm to indicate the men in the hall.
Jeremy steps forward and gives her a slight bow.
“Of course, Mrs. Mancini. There are many differences, hair color—”
“Hair style.”
“Muscle mass.”
“The way you carry yourself.”
“Your eyes aren’t the same color at all.”
“You barely look alike.”
She blinks and looks to each of the men as she processes their individual responses.
“H-how can you—?”
“We saw you at the banquet hall. Thank you for being with Pops until the end,” Jeremy says.
Loretta swallows and grits her teeth before responding, “It wasn’t enough.”
“It was, but that response is why we’ll follow you to the end,” Vinny says in his raspy voice.
I close my hand over hers when she twists her fist in my shirt. She blinks and clears her throat.
“Thank you, but I’m not your consigliere or your don,” she says.
“You don’t have to be. We know a trustworthy woman when we see one. Plus, our don and consigliere only choose the most capable people to be around them, so all you got to do is point, and we’ll go,” Jeremy says.
After a moment of mulling over his words, Loretta clears her throat again before meeting each of their eyes.
“Gag her, bind her legs, and toss her in the trunk. Nothing else,” she says.
“You got it, Mrs. Mancini,” Vinny rasps.
Livia gives a pathetic whine, but Loretta doesn’t spare her a glance. She aims expectant eyes up at me.
“What?” she asks.
None of the words forming in my mind are remotely appropriate, so I relay exactly what I think about her giving commands by imagining all the filthy things I want to do to her as I study her lips. A blush rises from her cleavage to her cheeks.
She slips her hands under my collar and digs her nails into my shoulders.
“Don’t you have things you need to do before we get to that?” she suggests.
With more gravel in my voice than usual, I instruct the soldiers to clean up the mess, scrub the surveillance tapes, bribe the desk clerk, and drive Livia to a specific location before grabbing Loretta by the ass and lifting her off her feet.
“We’ll be in her apartment for the time being. Do not interrupt unless it’s an emergency,” I snarl.
She sinks her nails deeper into my shoulders but doesn’t argue as I carry her through the gauntlet of men and across the hall to her door. As she searches my pockets for my keycard, I call the boss and update him.
Nico agrees to allow Loretta full rein over Livia’s interrogation and tells me to get her whatever supplies she needs.
“Once we have a little more information, we’ll pass it on to Giorgio so Aurora can do her thing,” he says.
Giorgio, Serenity’s brother, married one of the best hackers in the world. With a name and a few details, she can track anyone through the digital age. It’s slightly terrifying.
“Got it, boss. Anything else?” I ask.
He ends the call as I kick the door shut with my heel.
I lower Loretta’s feet to the floor and bite back a groan as her breasts pillow against my stomach.
“Is this a routine sort of day, or—?”
My cock hardens impossibly further.
She doesn’t mean the death and emotional turmoil across the hall. She’s challenging me.
The first time I invaded her sanctuary, I demanded she act like I wasn’t there.
She did.
Fuck, just the memory of her pulling off her clothes as she prowled away from me tests my control. I untie her braid and work the strands loose.
“Fuck yes, it is. Give me everything, gattina.”
Her smile adds a glimmer to her pale green eyes.
“Of course, Ermanno. Always.”
I groan and take her mouth in a scorching kiss.
Loretta Mancini took my last name, earned my devotion, stole my heart, and won over my family in less than two weeks.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
She’s mine. I’m hers.
Forever.
